2008/04/24: BBC: Hints of methane’s renewed riseLevels of the greenhouse gas methane in the atmosphere seem to be rising having remained stable for nearly 10 years. Data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US suggest concentrations rose by about 0.5% between 2006 and 2007. The rise could reflect melting of permafrost, increased industrialisation in Asia or drying of tropical wetlands. The rise in carbon dioxide levels was significantly higher than the average annual increase for the last 30 years. NOAA figures show CO2 concentrations rising by 2.4 parts per million (ppm) from 2006 to 2007. By comparison, the average annual increase between 1979 and 2007 was 1.65ppm

2008/04/23: CBC: Pine beetle outbreak adds to greenhouse gas woesThe mountain pine beetle’s infestation in western Canada is turning forests into a new source of greenhouse gases, according to new research to be published Thursday in the journal Nature. Scientists from Natural Resources Canada said the beetle’s ravenous spread through pine forests in British Columbia and Alberta is killing trees. The decaying trees areÂ in turn releasing carbon into the atmosphere. The cumulative impact of the beetle outbreak in the region will release 990 megatonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gasesÂ from 2000 to 2020, said the NRC’s senior research scientist, Werner Kurz.

A report that stratospheric sulphate geoengineering could have untoward effects:

2008/04/25: BBC: Climate ‘fix’ could deplete ozoneResearch has cast new doubt on the wisdom of using Sun-blocking sulphate particles to cool the planet. Sulphate injections are one of several “geo-engineering” solutions to climate change being discussed by scientists. But data published in Science journal suggests the strategy would lead to drastic thinning of the ozone layer.

2008/04/24: AFP: Artificially cooling Earth may prove perilous: studyRadical proposals to inject sulfur particles into the Earth’s stratosphere to cool it down and battle global warming could instead badly damage the ozone layer, a study warned Thursday. “Our research indicates that trying to artificially cool off the planet could have perilous side effects,” said researcher Simone Tilmes from the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “While climate change is a major threat, more research is required before society attempts global geoengineering solutions.” The study, published Thursday in Science Express, warns that injecting sulfate particles into the air at an altitude of some 10 to 50 kilometers (six to 30 miles), could lead to a loss of ozone above the Arctic and delay the recovery of the hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica by decades.

Late comment on the Huaynaputina volcano:

You might wonder at my continuing to include the food crisis among the global warming articles. The current food crisis is caused by several factors.

Climate change is having an impact. Drought has ravaged crops in Australia and eastern Europe.

The growing wealth of Asian countries, notably China and India, has triggered a shift toward a western diet containing more meat. More grain is being used to feed poultry and livestock, raising demand and hence prices.

Arching over all other considerations, the price of oil, besides directly affecting transportation, has driven the cost of fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation through the roof.

There are always more mouths. The global population is rising at a rate of ~1.1% a year.

In the background, the IMF’s structural adjustments and associated neoliberal policies have had the effect of destroying much local agricultural capability, because local farmers can’t compete with subsidized imports.

With current prices so high, the economy sliding into recession, and the stock market being erratic, there is undoubtably a degree of speculation going on as well.

To all these factors, the Americans add major subsidies for biofuel which has the effect of tying the world food market to the energy market.

I have no doubt that high prices will motivate farmers to grow more, and the complaints of the hungry will encourage politicians to change misguided policies, but it going to take time and I will continue to track the issue. In the long run, we have here a preview of what will happen as population continues to increase, as the weather becomes more unreliable and as oil becomes more expensive.

The food crisis remains a top story:

2008/04/26: BBC: Punjab reaps a poisoned harvestThe governments of many poor nations are alarmed at the rise in food prices. There are even problems in the Indian region of Punjab, where science once seemed to have found answers for a hungry world

2008/04/24: BBC: LatAm leaders in food price pactFour Latin American leaders, meeting in Caracas, have agreed on a $100m (£50m) scheme to combat the impact of rising food prices on the region’s poor. The presidents of Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela and Cuba’s vice-president also agreed on joint programmes to promote the development of agriculture.

2008/04/24: SMH: UN cuts school children’s mealsA “silent tsunami” unleashed by costlier food is threatening 100million people, the United Nations has warned, revealing that its World Food Program has begun cutting the provision of school meals to some of the world’s poorest children as the global food-price crisis worsens.

2008/04/23: BBC: Rice at fresh peak on supply fearRice prices have scaled fresh heights in Asian trade amid concern that export bans by key producers will hit supply. Rough rice for July delivery touched $24.745 per 100lb for the first time, before falling slightly

2008/04/23: BBC: Assessing the global food crisis“A silent tsunami which knows no borders sweeping the world”. That is how [Josette Sheeran] the head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) summed up the global food shortages. It is certainly a storm that has hit with little warning and has plunged an extra 100 million people into poverty. The crisis has triggered riots in Haiti, Cameroon, Indonesia and Egypt and is deemed a dangerous threat to stability

2008/04/22: BBC: UN food chief urges crisis actionThe head of the UN World Food Programme has said urgent action is required to stimulate food production and help the poor cope with soaring food prices. Josette Sheeran told the BBC that an additional 100 million people, who did not need assistance six months ago, could not now afford to purchase food. Her warning came ahead of a meeting in London to discuss the rise in prices and an EU policy encouraging biofuels.

2008/04/22: StatsCanada: Human activity and the environment: Climate change in Canada – 1990 to 2005Canada’s emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), major contributors to climate change, rose 25% between 1990 and 2005. However, without increases in energy efficiency, the increase in emissions would have been even greater. In 2005, human activities released the equivalent of 747 megatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in Canada. This was up about 25% from emissions of 596 megatonnes in 1990.

2008/04/23: CanWest: Canada is No. 3 polluterGas-guzzling vehicles are one of the key factors behind the notorious environmental record of Canadians who are among the highest per capita polluters in the world, according to figures released Tuesday by Statistics Canada. Each Canadian produces an average of 23 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year, trailing Americans, who create an average of 24.4 tonnes of emissions per year, and Australians, with an average of 27.7 tonnes of emissions per year, according to the federal statistical agency.

2008/04/24: Reuters: Brazil: biofuels threaten food production only in U.S.Brazil’s finance minister rejected on Monday the idea that the production of biofuels is driving higher the price of food globally, saying that this is a problem restricted to the United States. “It endangers (food production) here in the United States, but not in Brazil, not in African countries, not in Latin American countries, which have enough land to produce both” food and biofuels, Guido Mantega told journalists in New York. Environmentalists and some government officials of developed countries have partially blamed a recent spike in food prices on the growing production of biofuels…

2008/04/23: AutoBG: GM CEO Wagoner slams biofuel critics in BeijingRecent comments by John Powell, the deputy director of the UN World Food Program, have drawn return fire from GM CEO Rick Wagoner at the Beijing Motor Show. Powell blamed biofuels in part for the recent run up in food prices around the world that has resulted in more poor people not being able to afford food. Speaking at the Beijing Motor Show Wagoner called critics “shockingly misinformed” saying that high fuel prices are a much bigger factor in food costs than the diversion of food stocks to fuel production.

2008/04/22: BBC: Leaders warn on biofuels and foodTwo Latin American leaders have issued warnings about the effects of biofuel production on food supplies. Speaking at the UN in New York, Bolivian President Evo Morales said the development of biofuels harmed the world’s poorest people. And President Alan Garcia of Peru said using land for biofuels was putting food out of reach for poor people. Meanwhile UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is hosting a meeting to discuss European policy encouraging biofuels.

2008/04/22: MontgomeryAd: Lifestyle changeRecently, protesting truckers slowed large sections of national highways to a halt. Around the same time, several airlines were closing or cutting operations. Meanwhile, car manufacturers were reporting some of their worst numbers in a generation. A close look reveals that all three of these transportation problems — and indeed many other non-transportation ones — are tied together with a common bond, the ever increasing costs of non-renewable fuels such as oil

2008/04/23: DenverPost: Scientist’s aim: Alter weatherRoelof Bruintjes dismisses the old saw that everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it. The Boulder scientist has made it rain in Australia, Turkey, the Middle East, Africa and Wyoming. […] Scientists are monitoring more than 150 weather-modification projects in 40 countries, including at least 60 in the Western United States. The projects include wringing additional snow out of clouds for California hydropower and easing droughts in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the current research on this inexact science is being conducted abroad, since funding for a majority of U.S. efforts dried up in the 1980s. China has 30,000 scientists devoted to weather modification…

2008/04/24: PhysOrg: Researcher to Study Gene Flow ‘Hot Spots’ in CanolaA University of Arkansas researcher and her colleagues have won a joint grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency to look at the combined effects of global climate change on weed biology, focusing in particular on transgenic hybrid weeds created by cross-pollination with genetically modified crop plants.

2008/04/22: Yahoo: Climate change talks ‘heading for trouble’Governments negotiating a new climate change treaty, due next year, remain far apart on many issues, and this should be a “warning sign” that the world is facing trouble, a top UN environmental official said Tuesday. Talks in Bangkok earlier this month to thrash out firm commitments to battling global warming made little ground and this does not bode well for the 2009 meeting, Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), told reporters.

2008/04/23: ABC(Au): UN launches ‘international climate index’The United Nations has launched what it is calling an “international climate index” to make governments more accountable on climate change. Under the plan, countries will be asked to detail how they are preparing their economies to cut pollution and tackle global warming. The indicators declared could include tax incentives for business, introducing carbon efficiencies, or government investment in scientific research.

2008/04/22: PhysOrg: California to sign UN compact to help China cut emissionsDespite its output, California is leading efforts to curb emissions. The state’s top environmental official is in Beijing to sign an agreement with the United Nations to help China’s efforts. According to the four-page agreement to be signed Tuesday on Earth Day, the state also would mobilize public agencies and encourage private entities in California to support climate change projects in China

The EU and Japan held their yearly conference in Tokyo:

2008/04/23: BBC: Summit calls for climate targetsEuropean and Japanese leaders at their annual summit in Tokyo have called for “ambitious and binding” targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Their statement says curbing climate change will need mobilisation of “unprecedented investments and finance” mainly from the private sector. It accepts that a Japanese plan to explore separate targets for different types of industry is “useful”. Leaders hope to take their arguments forward into the July G8 meeting.

The IMF’s structural adjustments and associated neoliberal policies are a hidden political substrate in the global food crisis:

In the UK, the Royal United Services Institute had harsh words about global warming and security:

2008/04/23: Yahoo: Response to climate security threats ‘slow and inadequate’The international response to security threats posed by climate change has been “slow and inadequate”, according to a report published Wednesday. According to the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a British security think tank, a failure to adequately prepare for this is on a par with neglecting the risks of nuclear weapons proliferation or terrorism.

2008/04/24: SMH: War alert on climate fluxClimate change could cause global conflicts as large as the two world wars, but lasting for centuries, unless the problem is controlled, a leading defence think tank [Royal United Services Institute] says.

2008/04/24: Yahoo: Environment groups target Senate races on climateU.S. environmental groups joined forces on Thursday to target Senate candidates in Colorado, New Hampshire and New Mexico, aiming to elect a 60-vote majority to deal with global warming. Environmental measures have failed to clear Congress by “a handful of votes in the Senate” in recent years, the groups’ leaders said, noting the legislation to fight climate change is set for debate by the full Senate this year.

2008/04/21: BBC: ‘Largest’ wind farm plan rejectedPlans to construct one of Europe’s largest onshore wind farms has been refused by the Scottish Government. It said Lewis Wind Power’s (LWP) 181-turbines for Lewis on the Western Isles did not comply with European law protecting sensitive environments. The scheme had the backing of the local authority and business, but attracted almost 11,000 objections.

2008/04/23: ABC(Au): Climate change funding for Vic farmersThe Victorian Government will spend $200-million helping farmers improve productivity and sustainability. Part of the money will be spent on research and development of drought and salt tolerant crops, new technology and disease control. The package also includes funding for marketing, weed management and attracting young people to farming. The Premier, John Brumby says the money will help primary industries cope with the changing environment.

2008/04/21: ABC(Au): More climate change protests promisedA Newcastle lobby group says it is preparing for more protests against coal exports, despite a large number of arrests during a weekend demonstration on Kooragang Island. Sixteen members of the Rising Tide group were arrested by police on Saturday morning after disrupting construction work on Newcastle’s third coal loader.

2008/04/21: ABC(Au): Farmers pounce on carbon trading schemeMore than 1,000 landholders across Australia have enquired about becoming involved in a carbon trading program being run by Landcare. Under the Carbonsmart scheme, landholders can earn money by agreeing to plant and maintain vegetation on land which is unsuitable for agriculture. Landcare spokesman Matthew Reddy says the Queensland Government is also supportive of the program because of its environmental benefits.

Scientists and hunters held competing conferences discussing the status of the polar bear:

2008/04/26: BBC: Polar bears ‘at risk’ in CanadaPolar bears in Canada are at risk from climate change but not threatened with extinction, a panel of experts has advised the Canadian government. The government should develop a plan to protect the country’s estimated 15,000 polar bears, the panel said.

BC is still tweaking their climate policy:

2008/04/21: CanWest: Going a different shade of greenSlow down, you’re going green way too fast. That’s been the message from inside many of Vancouver’s boardrooms to Premier Gordon Campbell after he joined California’s Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in fighting climate change. It now appears the premier is listening to business and will slow down the implementation of CO2 reduction targets. […] Specifically, what is happening is that the California-led Western Climate Initiative, which B.C. joined a year ago, is trying to develop a regional consensus on how to set CO2 reduction targets and create a carbon-trading market. But integration of the various economies and interests into such a system is proving exceedingly complex.

In Alberta, Greenpeace had some fun with Premier Ed Stelmach:

The tricky & difficult question of the tar sands looms:

2008/04/24: G&M: Crude prices boost [tar sand oil company] Suncor profit by 23%[…] For the year, the company — which also runs refineries and gas stations in Ontario and Colorado — now expects oil sands output to average 275,000 to 285,000 barrels a day, down from the last target of 275,000-300,000 barrels a day. In the quarter, Suncor earned $708-million, or $1.53 a share, up from year-earlier $576-million, or $1.25 a share. Excluding one-time items, net income was $788-million, or $1.70 per share, up from $567-million, or $1.23 a share. Analysts had expected, on average, $1.60 a share, according to Reuters Estimates. Cash flow, an indicator of its ability to pay for projects, rose 41 per cent to $1.16-billion from $825- million.

And the betting meme rolls on:

2008/04/27: AFP: Strike hits key British oil refineryWorkers at one of Britain’s biggest oil refineries started a two-day strike Sunday, forcing the closure of a major North Sea pipeline and triggering panic-buying of petrol. The walkout by around 1,200 workers began at 6:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) at the Grangemouth refinery, west of Edinburgh, while the neighbouring Forties pipeline was closed down around the same time, operator BP said. The key pipeline brings more than 700,000 barrels of crude oil ashore every day and supplies around 40 percent of Britain’s oil and gas plus international markets. It cannot function without power and steam from Grangemouth.

2008/04/15: Scitizen: David vs. Goliath: The Emerging Climate Fault LineA new fault line has emerged in the climate movement amidst a firestorm of debate over the past week. On one side is a group of old-guard and well-known environmentalists, and on the other is a newly forming alliance of climate and energy scientists who are challenging traditional beliefs held at the highest levels of the environmental establishment. What is happening should invigorate young activists to continue challenging conventional wisdom — and serve as an alarm to the entire movement.

P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.

“Emissions are growing much faster than we’d thought, the absorptive capacity of the planet is less than we’d thought, the risks of greenhouse gases are potentially bigger than more cautious estimates, and the speed of climate change seems to be faster.” -Nicholas Stern,